Mission Statement

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What We Are

The underlying goal of the Alliance for Health Reform, from its origin and into the future, is affordable, quality health care and long-term care for all Americans. The enactment of the Affordable Care Act has changed the context and content of our educational offerings for opinion leaders, but not our aim.

We are at the beginning of what promises to be a lengthy period of adjustment to the health reform law, especially since there will be an added, intense focus on reducing federal spending on the Medicare and Medicaid health care programs. This is a period that will see continuing delivery system innovation and more vigorous efforts to prevent disease, improve the quality of care and gain greater value for each health care dollar spent. These changes will occur in ways that reflect, and in some cases go beyond, the changes made in the new law. We will continue to pursue our mission during this period by:

explaining the myriad provisions of the law, and their policy implications;

examining how various aspects of the law are being carried out, at both federal and state levels;

tracking how well the law is achieving its objectives in coverage, cost and quality;

looking at proposed changes in the law, as unintended consequences and "unfinished business" emerge over time;

examining proposals for lowering health care costs generally, including federal spending in the Medicare and Medicaid programs, and explaining their impact on beneficiaries.

In all that we do, the board and staff of the Alliance remain committed to helping policy makers and others move toward an improved health care system that can deliver affordable, quality care for all.

Webcast: The Emerging Biosimilars Market

Open Enrollment Preview: Checking the Vitals of the Marketplaces

The Affordable Care Act's health insurance marketplaces rely on robust competition to control costs and to provide consumer choice. But the decisions of several large insurers to scale back their 2017 marketplace participation, and the failure of many health insurance co-ops will leave marketplace shoppers in many states with fewer choices than they had in 2016. Furthermore, those insurers remaining in the exchanges have often found their marketplace customers to be less healthy than they projected, and they are raising premiums in response. Our briefing focuses on these trends, what they mean for the long-term viability of the marketplaces, and what public policy steps can be taken to bring more healthy people into the risk pool and to encourage insurer participation in the individual market.